I am the Grunt
by M.N. Arias Adviser of Aincrad
Summary: When a simple grunt, who has some experience on the battlefield does the unthinkable.
1. Chapter 1

I knelt down inside of the carrier ship, the sounds of bullets pinging off the hull as we came to a halt, "Dear holy father, please guide me through this fight with your holy hand, and let me survive so that I may repent for the sins I have committed in this unholy war," this was the prayer I said before every drop because the chances of me surviving were almost zip. I wasn't nearly indestructible like the SPECTREs, or faster than a bullet like the Pilots. I was just a simple grunt fighting for a company that could promise my family a good life, even if I died.

I serve my family even in death, and that was all that mattered to me. Family above all, that was what my father told me before he died and I took it to heart. Just before the doors opened, and the zip-line shot out from the ceiling of the carrier into the ground, alarms started to ring, and that meant that the ship was about to blow up. I grabbed onto the line and slid towards the ground with my partner behind me, but the ship blew before we were able to hit the ground. We ended up on the rooftops, and that was somewhere neither of us wanted to be. Without talking, we both started running towards the edge of the building and jumped off. Or at least I did, when I hit the ground, my partner wasn't with me. I could only guess what happened to him, and as soon as I saw an enemy pilot jump from the rooftop I was just on, to another, I knew what had happened and knew that I was lucky to still be alive.

I saw another of soldiers in the next building, and knew my best chance was to get to them. I ran across the street, firing at some of the militia forces. The commander of the friendly detachment was the same rank as me, meaning their real commander had gotten killed, "Where are we going?" I asked as I took cover behind the door. There was at least twenty enemy troops two streets down, meaning that it would be impossible to make a run in the direction that our objective was going towards.

"I don't know," the commander said as he sat on the ground in defeat, "let's face it, we have no business in this battle. The pilots are tearing everything apart, and we have no fall back point with the rest of the IMC forces."

I almost cursed at the luck I had, then I remembered the pilot on the roof before and took a deep breath, "Specialist," I called to the man wearing a radar-pack, "what are we looking at outside?"

"I'm seeing twenty-three enemy grunts, six SPECTRES, and at least six enemy pilots in our vicinity. Basically, a we're screwed sandwich if you ask me," the Specialist said as he checked his weapon, "So, are we going to die in a blaze of glory, or die hiding like rats?"

I looked at him as if he were crazy, "I would prefer-"

"Contact! Enemy pilot!" One of the soldiers shouted, interrupting me as he aimed out the door and started firing from the hip.

"Make you shots count!" I shouted as I pulled the weapon up to look down the sights, firing at where the pilot was, but every time I fired he moved and the only thing I hit was the walls behind him. I started backing up as I was firing, going deeper into the hallway when one of our pilots appeared from out of nowhere and jump-kicked the enemy. I nearly dropped my gun from the surprise, and looked at the men next to me, "Looks like luck smiles upon us," I looked down the hall, "We need to fall back, we are too deep in enemy territory and will die if we continue to wait for new orders."

"So, where to?" the commander asked as he stood up, "Looks like you are giving the orders."

"I'm just trying to survive," I started walking down the hall, "and as to where to go, let's go away from the enemy. Everyone keep your weapons up and be ready to fire," I pointed at the two soldiers farthest back, "You two watch our six, and alert us if someone is trying to get the drop."

"Understood," the two soldiers said as they started walking backwards.

"I'll be damned if I die here today," I told them as I reloaded my weapon. I hoped I wouldn't have to kill anyone, and that if I did god would forgive me. I took point, seeing as none of the other soldiers offered, and gave the command to move out of the building once we got to the other side, "We'll be out on open terrain once we get into the streets, so look back periodically in case tangos show up."

Everyone nodded and I started running through the street, turning back and aiming behind me as everyone else hurried towards friendly controlled areas. When there was no one left I turned back around and ran with them. The rest of the squad started following my example, every now and then someone would look back, and we kept running until we heard gunfire, and bullets wizzing past our heads. We all hit the deck as we turned around. There were five enemies on our six, and I stood up and opened fired. With the combined accuracy of the entire squad we were able to take them out. I looked around and saw that one of us was shot through the head, and another was hit in the leg. Without thought, I grabbed him, and slung his arm over my shoulder, "I'm not going to leave you behind," I said as I started dragging him with the rest of the squad, who was already running back towards the base of operations. I was nearly there until I heard more bullets. I turned around partially, and saw that this time it was a pilot. Without stopping I aimed my rifle towards the enemy, and started firing. I felt a sharp pain in my leg as I collapsed to the ground and heard the man next to me grunt in pain as he was shot again.

I rolled away from the soldier, and kept firing at the pilot, who obviously thought I was dead. The surprise was enough to get him to panic, and he had already been wounded by another pilot. I saw his body fall to the ground in front of me, and knew he had died. I started trying to stand up, but knew it would be impossible since the bullet that hit me went through my leg. Keeping my weight on my good leg, I picked myself up, then my comrade, and with his help, walked towards the base. I felt really lucky, since there was a medi-vac waiting at the base to take any wounded soldiers that hadn't been killed away from the battle. With the help from the rest of the squad that was already there, me and the other soldier got onto the shuttle and it warped out of the planet's atmosphere.

I felt extremely lucky that I had survived that battle, especially with how many encounters I had with enemy pilots. When I turned, I saw a pilot who was missing his arm look at me, "I saw what you did. If it wasn't for you everyone in that base would be dead or severly wounded. I thank you for that," from the voice, I could tell it was a she, "You have a good aim, why haven't you tried applying for the pilot program?"

"I didn't think i would qualify for the pilot program," I told her honestly, "I was never really good with machines," I closed my eyes, "besides with my leg like this, I doubt I could continue to fight."

"I lost my legs in pilot training, trust me, prosthetic are worth it," she told him as she lifted her pant leg, revealing that her legs where mechanical, "I'm sure you'll make a great pilot. We need as many of them as we can get. As you've seen, we aren't immortal."


	2. Chapter 2

**I know it has been a while since I first posted this story, and I was writing this constantly, but I'm not very good with doing things outside of a battle. So if you think I need improvement with my dialogue and know what I don't do right, please tell me. I want to become a great writer.**

* * *

I heard the cold mechanical beeping of a life support machine as I opened my eyes. There was something different, but I couldn't figure out what it was. I sat up, and started remembering the events that had happened before I fell asleep. They were replacing my legs, making sure my body wouldn't reject the prosthetic legs. I grabbed the sheet covering my legs, and threw it off the bed. Instead of seeing my flesh and blood legs I had been so used to, there were mechanical appendages. I turned and let my legs hang off of the bed, noticing the strange sensation of both feeling and non-feeling in my legs.

I took a deep breath and began to stand up, only to have a nearby nurse push me back to the bed, "I'm sorry, but you aren't quite ready to move yet. Your body is still adjusting to your artificial limbs."

I shrugged her hand off, "Lady, my family has a saying," I told her as I attempted to stand again, without her interference, "Use it or lose it," I immediately fell to my knees, and grabbed onto the bed for leverage. I pulled myself to my feet, and with the help of the bed and a wall, I was able to stand on my new legs.

"I've never seen anyone do that on their first day before," the nurse told me in surprise, "and you aren't a pilot?"

"No," I answered as I leaned on the wall and walked towards the door, unhooking all the pads covering my body, "the reason I needed prosthetic legs was because they are putting me into the pilot program."

A grim look passed her face as I turned to look at her, "I'm sorry then," the nurse said as she nodded solemnly.

"Why do you say that?"

"The pilot program has a 98% fatality rate," I widened my eyes in horror as that information reached my ears, "I'm guessing since you have these legs, you can't exactly back out of the program now."

I nodded and placed my hand against the cool metal of the door frame, holding onto it tight so I didn't fall down again. There was a reason that the Pilots had become so skilled. Only the best survive and even then, they were expendable, "This entire war makes me feel like a useless bag of meat," I thought aloud as I hit the wall, "I'm expendable as a soldier, now I'm going to go through training to make me an expendable pilot. Where did we lose our humanity?" I pressed the keypad on the door and listened to it open with a _swoosh._ The nurse said something to me, but I didn't listen to it. I had to get used to my new legs quickly, or I was going to die before I even got back onto a battlefield.

I started thinking about the horrors I was about to face, and in the middle of getting lost in my train of thought I forgot about my legs and stopped supporting myself on the wall. It wasn't until I noticed my hand wasn't on the wall that I realized that I had been walking without the support. When I wasn't thinking about moving my legs they moved as naturally as if they were actually my, flesh and blood, legs. Then I collapsed onto the ground. I still wasn't used to it, and this was bound to happen more often than not. Someone ran over to me and helped me up, "Thank you," I said quietly as I looked over to see who it was.

To my surprise, it was one of the men I had saved back in Atlas City, "Hey commander," the soldier said as he helped my to a seat, "Fancy new legs you got there."

"I'm sorry," I said sincerely, "but I can't remember your name," he sat me down at one end of the table, then took a seat in an adjacent seat.

"That's because you didn't hear it," he told me with a slight smirk, "we were too busy trying to stay alive. I'm Joshua Wagner," he reached his hand out to formally greet me.

I accepted his hand and shook it, "John Herding."

The two of us talked about small things, what we expected when we got home, the first things we were going to do, until finally we came to going back into combat, "So, looks like they'll keep sending us into combat, not that I can blame them. Not many people will willingly give their lives for a company, no matter how good the pay is."

"Yeah, but we still have to support them someway, though I'd rather be in an office," I told him as I looked at my legs, "I'm applying for the pilot program," I said after a moment, "Gives me one hell of a pay raise..." Pilots were one of the things that Grunts detested the most, even if they were on the same side. There wasn't a grunt that survived a combat mission who hadn't lost at least one friend to a pilot.

"That's great!" Joshua shouted as he smiled wickedly, "That will show them stuck up, sons of bitches that their little pilot's club isn't exclusive."

My face turned to surprise as he congratulated me on applying to the program, "You aren't going to stop me?" I asked in surprise. Though I barely knew the man, I knew that he would be honest about his opinion, that's why I told him.

"Why would I, if a grunt like us can get into the pilot program, maybe those that don't might stand a chance. Pilots don't care for the men that can't jump from rooftop to rooftop or climb a building. They just care about killing. I know you, you aren't that type of person. If you were, I wouldn't be talking to you right now."

"Well, that was surprising," I blurted out with a chuckle, "I'm going to try my best, and hope I don't die in the process."

"The best is all we can do as Grunts, I've heard rumors that Pilots don't really ever die because they have some sort of memory technology that allows them to transfer them to another body just before they die."

"Why not give it to all soldiers?" I asked as he raised my eyebrow, "if we all had that, there wouldn't be any fear of death on the battle and people would fight more valiantly."

"No, they would fight more recklessly," Joshua corrected as he smiled, "Notice how we only drop with six Pilots per mission, but they never seem to go away even if we see them get shot. They don't fight smart, they fight like reckless killers. They don't care if they live or die because they'll just come back. Now, imagine if everyone acted like that. Cloning somebody costs money, and of course they'd only give it to their top soldiers, AKA pilots."

"I see, so the cost of reviving everyone would more than just hiring another Grunt or producing another SPECTRE, right?"

"Right. I only ask one thing out there, try and keep as many of us alive, we don't want to die yet," Both me and Joshua chuckled before falling silent, "I'd better head back to my room before the nurse notices I'm missing." He got up slowly and started walking back to his room, "Have a good day," he said as he waved back at me, "and don't die."

I waved back, but didn't say anything. There was only a one percent chance that I was going to survive the pilot program, and I wasn't sure that I would be able to handle it. I just have to focus on survival, that's all I needed to do. I took a deep breath before standing up, and using the walls to go back to my room.


End file.
